Parental Distress Tolerance and Adolescent Anxiety: The Mediating Role of Adolescent Distress Tolerance

• In Event: Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Topic - Developmental Psychopathology

Abstract

Adolescence is a vulnerable time, with approximately 32% of adolescents aged 13-18 developing an anxiety disorder (NIH, 2017). Thus, it is critical to understand the development of anxiety. Distress tolerance (DT; i.e., one’s ability to withstand physical or psychological distress) is negatively associated with anxiety, meaning a person with lower DT tends to have more anxiety symptoms (Brandt et al., 2012; Daughters et al., 2013). One study found that mothers’ DT was positively associated with their daughters’ DT (Daughters et al., 2014). This aligns with emotion socialization research indicating that how parents handle emotions may impact how their children learn to handle emotions, which in turn may affect their children’s likelihood of developing psychopathology (Bayer et al., 2006; Turner et al., 2003). Although links between parental DT and adolescent anxiety has been explored in research previously, no significant association was found (Cheron, 2011). The goal of the current study is to investigate if mothers’ and fathers’ DT predicts adolescent anxiety, through adolescent DT. Specifically, it was expected that parents’ DT would be negatively associated with adolescents’ anxiety in that parents who are less able to tolerate their own distress will have more anxious adolescents, and adolescents’ DT will mediate the relationship between parental DT and adolescent anxiety symptoms.

The study included 291 adolescents (50.5% girls) aged 14 to 17 and 263 mothers and 87 fathers from the southeastern U.S. Adolescents and their parents completed surveys in-person or at home. They all completed the Distress Tolerance Scale (DTS; Simons & Raluca, 2005), which includes 15 statements (e.g., “I can’t handle feeling distressed or upset”) that are rated on a 5-point scale, with higher scores indicating greater DT (α = .82 to .86). Adolescents also completed the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item scale (GAD-7; Spitzer et al., 2006). It includes 7 statements such as “feeling nervous, anxious, or on edge” rated on a 4-point scale based on their feelings in the past 2 weeks. Higher scores indicate more anxiety symptoms (α = .89).

Correlations were in the expected direction (See Table 1). Hayes’ (2013) PROCESS model was used to test mediation, while controlling for adolescent sex. Results indicated a significant indirect effect between both mothers’ and fathers’ DT and adolescent anxiety symptoms through adolescents’ DT (see Figure 1 for path and model statistics). Although neither mothers’ not fathers’ DT was significantly related to adolescent anxiety directly, both were indirectly linked through adolescents’ DT.

In conclusion, both maternal and paternal DT were significantly, positively associated with adolescents’ DT. By finding a link between parents’ and adolescents’ DT in both males and females, this research extends a previous study that found an association only between mothers and daughters (Daughters et al., 2014). Further, this study provided new evidence that adolescents’ DT indirectly links parents’ DT with higher levels of anxiety in their adolescents. Although future work should test these associations longitudinally, this study has implications for helping adolescents in clinical settings and for educating parents on how they may be impacting their children’s anxiety symptoms.

Authors

• Isabella Camerlin, West Virginia University
  Presenting Author

• Amy L Gentzler, West Virginia University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Yeawon Park, West Virginia University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Amy Elizabeth Kennedy Root, West Virginia University
  Non-Presenting Author